Problems with night time sleep.

Hi
Lately Miss Hannah has started absolutely screaming whenever I take her to her room for her night time sleep. Its absolutley awful coz I have to leave her in her cot crying and I really hate this. We have tried cuddling her, telling her in advance that bedtime is coming and she can have one more book etc etc but as soon as I say "time for bed" she starts crying. She stops a few minutes after she is put down and is usually really tired and drops striaght off to sleep.

Its just really strange coz up until a couple of weeks ago she was a happy little vegemite who would lay down in bed and cuddle with her teddies and even say "bye" to me as I closed the door. I would like to stop the crying coz she isnt far from needing to sleep in a bed and I think it would be better if she was back to being a happy little monster at bedtime - plus it would make for a much happier Mum!!!

Any suggestions - do you think it could be a stage, I was actually wondering if we have been letting her get overtired.

Sounds very familiar to what I have been through with both of my boys. They went from happily walking into bed themselves to being very upset about it.
It could be a number of things. Seperation anxiety, teething (those darn molars could be making an early appearance) or it could be that she is overtired like you said.
Just keep doing what you are doing. If she is only upset for a few minutes then I wouldn't worry too much about it

My neice was doing exactly the same thing and she was the best little sleeper i knew - she used to ask to go to bed. I think it may just be a developmental phase that will soon pass. My sister ended up changing her doona cover and sheets with a pretty, fluffy pillow - my neice got to pick them...and has made her bed something extra special that she's not afraid of. Just keep doing what u r and give her that added encouragement

I am going through this too, it takes us 2 hours to get Matilda to sleep though and she's generally up for a few hours in the middle of the night. I've phoned for help, spoken with child development people and we are going to the GP in an hour to see if there is anything else wrong.

Like the others have said, it is a developmental phase they go through at different times, the separation anxiety, the key I was told was to be consistent and comfort them but keep to a routine, in 5-10 nights things could be sorted. We have just hit our 7th night of absolute screaming...so I can't say its worked yet.

I stopped walking away. I couldn't do it anymore, I figure that even if it is a comfort thing and she is getting anxious with us leaving her than me spending an extra 20-30 minutes in her room getting her to sleep isn't too bad. We put boundaries up for her, so I put her in bed and pat her bottom or rub her back & if she jumps up then I tell her that I have to leave if she doesn't lay down. Until this last week, this has worked, she really understood that the rules were that I would stay and sit next to her bed for a while if she went to sleep. I started by staying in there 30-40 minutes or until she was asleep & gradually took time off that and left a bit earlier. If she got worked up or out of bed, I would go in & tell her to get in her bed & give her a kiss, tell her I love her and that I will be right outside. I would leave again & as a rule this helped her comfortably go to sleep rather than screaming.

This week we are going through something so different though, she won't even sit on her bed at non nap times and suddenly hates her bed. We can't pat her bottom, we can't even sit next to the bed or she becomes hysterical. We are at a loss at the moment, but have seen the GP now and everyone tells us just to be consistent and comforting. So that is what we are going to do...

I would also try staying with her a little longer. It may even be a good time to introduce the bed. She will possibly have the same problems once the bed comes into the picture. Might as well get it over with now KWIM?

Mackenzie was a champion sleeper until she hit about 14 months. Being put into her cot was the worst thing in her world we could do to her and like you it was only a problem for her night sleeps, during the day she was fine. She eventually grew out of it (I agree with the others - she became more aware of what was going on etc) but her sleeping was broken through out the night and she would wake up screaming for sometimes hours at 2am. Once we moved her into a bed she was great - don't know if she felt confinde in the cot or she was just that bit older and she grew out of waking up etc.